| Take a Breath [Genma, Rina] | [May. 26th, 2010|09:59 pm] |
[Backdated: Takes place three and a half years ago, in mid-September, immediately following Eye of the Storm.]
The shaft was long, winding, and pitch dark. The ANBU's glowstick lent its eerie light, but all Rina could see was Yushiro's white face and savaged chest cavity, his jounin vest shredded and black with blood. Shouji is still alive, she told herself as she climbed, he's still alive.
It helped, some.
The synthetic energy thrumming through her was starting to burn as it coursed through overused channels, and left a sour taste in the back of her throat. Her heart pounded as if it wanted to run away with her, charged with pharmaceuticals, but she tried to keep a lid on it. When they finally pulled themselves out of the ventilation shaft, Rina flinched away from her image momentarily reflected in Inari's mirror: skin too pale, eyes too bright.
Spun back towards it, all senses wrenched into painful alertness, when the misty gray background in the mirror erupted into fiery red.
Urgent hands shoved her to the ground, the rough concrete scraping a layer of skin off her cheek. Someone--the ANBU--landed almost on top of her, and she felt his weavings of chakra coalesce into a shield only an instant before the roar of the fireball swallowed her awareness in scorching crimson.
The instant it faded, he pushed himself up, and they rolled in separate directions. By the time she regained her feet, he was already halfway across the clearing. Rina's eyes flitted across the scene--burning grass, singed fox-statues--then followed in quick pursuit, a sai in one hand and her tagged kunai in the other. |
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